Palliative & supportive care
-
Palliat Support Care · Jun 2010
On the road again: patient perspectives on commuting for palliative care.
The aim of this research project was to gain an understanding of the experiences of rural cancer patients who commute to an urban cancer center for palliative care. ⋯ Rural lifestyles are often an important part of overall well-being and commuting for care is both costly and complex. Health care providers should assist individuals to weigh the relative contributions of staying in their rural locale versus commuting for care to their overall quality of life. Palliative-care individuals in this study indicated a number of ongoing problems but were not inclined to seek further assistance from health care providers in addressing those problems. Clinicians should actively inquire about problems and further research is needed to understand why patients are reluctant to seek help.
-
Palliat Support Care · Jun 2010
Characteristics, interventions, and outcomes of misdiagnosed delirium in cancer patients.
Although delirium is a common psychiatric complication in cancer patients, it is often not accurately recognized. To date, the characteristics and outcome of misrecognized patients are unclear in the cancer setting. This retrospective study was planned to determine the recognition by oncologists at the psychiatric consultation, characteristics, reversibility and outcome of misrecognized patients with delirium. ⋯ Despite its high prevalence, delirium is difficult to diagnose for non-psychiatric physicians. Its detection is important not only to give the best treatment option to cancer patients but also to provide the best opportunity to inform their family about their condition and end-of-life issues.
-
Palliat Support Care · Jun 2010
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and assisted ventilation: how patients decide.
Throughout the course of their illness, people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) must make many treatment decisions; however, none has such a significant impact on quality of life and survival as decisions about assisted ventilation. ⋯ People with ALS and caregivers value autonomy in decision-making about assisted ventilation. Their decision-making process is neither wholly rational nor self-interested, and includes factors that health professionals should anticipate and address. Discussions about assisted ventilation and timing should be tailored to each individual and undertaken periodically.
-
The aim of this study was to explore the significance of fatigue among relatives of palliative patients. ⋯ The result of the pilot study is only preliminary, but it showed that relatives caring for patients in a late palliative phase suffer from great fatigue and require more attention, both scientifically and in the clinical settings.
-
Palliat Support Care · Jun 2010
Biography Historical ArticleHow might Levinas' concept of the other's priority and Derrida's unconditional hospitality contribute to the philosophy of the modern hospice movement?
Hospitality is commonly referred as one of the meanings of hospes, the Latin word which is also the root of hospice. This article explores the semantics of the word hospice - the seal of identity of modern hospice movement - and attempts to integrate the meaning of hospitality into the modern hospice movement, understood as unconditional reception. Therefore, the article analyzes the concept of unconditional hospitality, developed by Jacques Derrida and that of ethical responsibility proposed by Emmanuel Levinas based on the phenomenological experience of the other. From this point of view, these two concepts tie in with the meaning of hospice, bringing substantial grounding elements to the hospice movement for the construction of a protective ethos.